A gruesome accident took place on Wednesday on the BQE off-ramp just feet from the now-shuttered Long Island College Hospital (LICH). Photo copyright 2014 Google Maps

Witnesses say accident 'gruesome,' driver decapitated

By Mary Frost

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Police and emergency units on Wednesday swarmed the off-ramp of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) at Atlantic Avenue and Hicks Street, just feet from the now-shuttered Long Island College Hospital (LICH), after a gruesome accident where a car plowed into the back of a large flatbed truck after a police chase.

An NYPD spokesperson told the Brooklyn Eagle that a 22-year-old male, Leroy Samuel, died in the accident, which took place at 12:02 p.m. "There was a traffic stop, but when the officer got out of his car, the driver kept going." NYPD said the man "was DOA" at the scene, and one other person, a woman, was injured.

FDNY told the Eagle that the injured woman was taken by ambulance to Lutheran Medical Center in Sunset Park. Two other injured passengers refused treatment.

A person at the scene told the Brooklyn Eagle that "a police chase ended with the car crashing into the truck." The man was told by a witness that the driver's head was sheared off.

An eyewitness told the New York Post the driver's head was in the backseat.

The SUNY board of trustees officially voted to sell LICH to a developer Wednesday morning. Once treating more than 50,000 patients a year in its ER, the limited emergency department there now can handle only minor health issues.

June 25, 2014 - 3:50pm

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